As the ubiquity and importance of digitally stored data continues to rise, the importance of keeping that data secure rises accordingly. While companies and individuals seek to protect their data, other individuals, organizations, and corporations seek to exploit security holes in order to access that data and/or wreak havoc on the computer systems themselves. Generally the different types of software that seek to exploit security holes can be termed “malware,” and may be categorized into groups including viruses, worms, adware, spyware, and others.
Many different products have attempted to protect computer systems and their associated data from attack by malware. One such approach is the use of anti-malware programs such as McAfee AntiVirus, McAfee Internet Security, and McAfee Total Protection. In addition to the threats posed by malware, owners and operators of computer systems may seek to protect their data from other types of security risks such as theft. In such situations, a computer system may have some or all of its data and/or data storage devices encrypted. It then may become important for the anti-malware products and security products to share data in order to most effectively protect the computer system.
The ability to share storage between different types of applications such as anti-malware and security products increases as computer systems grow in complexity, adding virtualization, adding multiple operating systems, and moving security products around the various layers that comprise the computer system. Additionally, problems arise in some shared storage solutions in the duplication and synchronization of shared data.